how to succeed

We are a very open, very democratic site, which means we get all sorts of people. We do get some bad guys who are a few fries short of a Happy Meal. So we have to enlist the aid of our community to help us. The lesson implicit in this is that people will help you out and behave in a really good way. If you trust them, they will respond to that trust.

Craig Newmark

Source: Business 2.0: How To Succceed: Trust Your Customers and They'll Love You in Return: http://money.cnn.com/popups/2006/biz2/howtosucceed/21.html

I also like to use a sensational headline. Many people read blogs in aggregators, which generally show only the headline. So you have to give people a reason to click through. Blogs need to be real and personal. Reading it should be like hanging out with you. I play music for my readers. I show them videos I like. I tell them what I did over the weekend. And I tell them what is happening in the technology, Internet, and VC markets.

Fred Wilson

Source: Business 2.0: How To Succceed: Build a Blog That Builds Your Business: http://money.cnn.com/popups/2006/biz2/howtosucceed/25.html

Business is about problem-solving, but it does not always have to be about maximizing profit. When I went into business, my interest was to figure out how to solve problems I see in front of me. That's why I looked at the poverty issue. I got involved in lots of things to address it, and one of them was money lending with loans and credits and savings accounts, and in the process I created Grameen Bank. So you can also have social objectives. Ask yourself these questions: Who are you? What kind of world do you want?

Muhammad Yunus

Source: Business 2.0: How To Succceed: Seek Big Rewards in Small Ideas: http://money.cnn.com/popups/2006/biz2/howtosucceed/16.html

The image of success is important, but even more important is the ability to focus on solutions instead of on problems. That way, you'll never be thinking like a loser, and you probably won't look like one either.

Donald Trump (1946 -)

Source: Business 2.0: How To Succceed: Obsess About Solutions, Not Problems: http://money.cnn.com/popups/2006/biz2/howtosucceed/17.html

You have to understand who you are and figure out a way to communicate it. It might be in a different industry, but it's about what pumps the blood through your veins, what makes you excited, what pushes your buttons. And then discovering the best way to communicate that, no matter how big or small; it's what you stand for, what you believe in, and what reflects who you are.

Andre Agassi

Source: Business 2.0: How To Succceed: Stage a Great Second Act: http://money.cnn.com/popups/2006/biz2/howtosucceed/10.html

Letting users control your site can be terrifying at first. From day one we were asking ourselves, "What is going to be on the front page today?" You have no idea what the system will produce. But stepping back and giving consumers control is what brought more and more people to the site. They have a sense of ownership and discovery at the same time. If you give users the tools to spread and share their interests with others, they will use them to promote what is important to them.

Kevin Rose

Source: Business 2.0: How To Succceed: Let the Users Run the Show: http://money.cnn.com/popups/2006/biz2/howtosucceed/11.html

Nowadays I find chocolate and/or chocolate-based snacks to be great motivators. Everyone loves chocolate. If someone has a lot of work to do, put a piece of fudge in a glass container (so they can see it) and let them know that if they accomplish their tasks, they can eat the fudge. You'll definitely get a reaction!

Michael Scott

Source: Business 2.0: How To Succceed: Avoid a Staff Mutiny (With Chocolate, if Necessary): http://money.cnn.com/popups/2006/biz2/howtosucceed/8.html

We are focused on features, not products. We eliminated future products that would have made the complexity problem worse. We don't want to have 20 different products that work in 20 different ways. I was getting lost at our site keeping track of everything. I would rather have a smaller set of products that have a shared set of features.

Sergey Brin

Source: Business 2.0: How To Succceed: Succeed With Simplicity: http://money.cnn.com/popups/2006/biz2/howtosucceed/index.html